Leilani is still a bit of a puzzle for us.  She is by far the best bed snuggler in dogville.  Her love for Lilli and enthusiasm for the game of “chase me” is unparalleled.  She is a patient and steady shaping dog and has the best retrieve in the house, dropping the object confidently in your hands every time.   It is sad for us though that she seems to lack a work ethic, her drive is stuck in neutral m0st times.  Up next for LeiLa is agility training to see if that is something she might love.  Otherwise we will just teach her a ton of cool tricks.

The Kai bear has fully settled in.  She is very well behaved, soft, gentle and beautiful.  In a few months she has already progressed further than we imagined.  She doesn’t have the intensity of the Lilli or Moxie which makes for a very smooth style.  The other two are killers and Kai is just a chaser. She went from no disc drive or interest to being a disc maniac.  She loves to play and bounces to show her excitement and enthusiasm.  She looks great in the air, all four paws straight out, landing well, and sprinting for the next toss.  Kai is a missile sometimes, charging paws first to the more vulnerable areas of our guests.  She is working on butterfly tosses now.  She will be a great reverse dog if I can figure out how to train it. Ron? Apryl? Tracy? Abby?

Lilli is awesome. I mean I love that dog more every day especially since we worked out our drop issues (Lilli prefers to keep what she kills).  We have some cool new moves with Lilli, the foot vault and the bender.  She is so intense with everything she does.  Her butterfly catches have been less consistent lately, not sure why that is. And her flip (landing) doesn’t seem very healthy so I am phasing it out of my work with her.  Lilli loves to learn new stuff.   Writing a routine to do with her is very fun, since she knows so many tricks and learns new stuff so quickly. She learned the knee scoot in one session.   She is not dynamic in the air, but she is the hardest working dog I know.  She keeps her eyes on the prize be it a long toss or a butterfly leg vault.She and Andrea took first place in their division at the Quad. Not bad since Andrea had less than a week to practice with Lilli, was doing her first ever freestyle routine, and did it all on her own as I was home with a Back injury.

Andrea and I will be busy this month and for a while as disc dog season is in full swing.  We hope to travel to a few nearby states to meet new friends in the sport.  We’ll also have plenty Florida competitions to keep us busy between the Central Florida Club and the Tropicanine events John Arnett sets up. Andrea and Moxie are learning more every day and I expect them to be a very dynamic team!  I look forward to getting back on the field this week in Central Florida with Kai and Lilli.  This will be Kai’s freestyle debut.  We are grateful for our dogs and the dog sport community.

Last night I figured I’d try teaching her to flip in the usual space where we do all of her shaping – inside on the carpet.  She loved it!  She did some little “umpa lumpas” and was very emphatic and focused.  I think I’m on to something!

This morning, she was extra amped and playful in her crate so I brought her out to try some more flip practice on the shaping carpet.  She was a disc monster – tugging and flipping and stretching to do more a real flip motion while coming back for more.  (Most often outside during training, she’ll take a tug but doesn’t hold or really pull on the disc.)

I have a new plan.  I’ll teach her to flip, catch butterflies and some short tosses on the carpet inside and when I feel she’s super confident, bring it back outside.  Hopefully building her confidence in the action itself, when she goes outside to practice, the stress of the training itself will be minimized or gone altogether. Check out a quick video of this morning’s session.

We’ve also put a couple more pounds on her over the past few weeks after Jason suggested it may be better for her.  She was very lean like the other girls – which is what I like to see in a disc dog.  However she comes from conformation lines and it seemed she was too lanky -and floppy.  She now seems much more balanced and strong and she didn’t flop at all during flip training – rather landed soundly.

I love the challenge that our girls have brought to us.  They are all very different and it has motivated me to be a multi-dimensional trainer versus just doing things the one way I know how.  We have one hardcore, one soft and one aloof.  I’m certainly looking forward to our next hardcore!!  Learning about the different personalities and training styles that are effective for each dog have taught me the value of assessing the individual dog for how they learn.  There isn’t a single perfect formula.  I plan to write a post soon about different training approaches.  The thought came to me after a great conversation with Apryl Lea yesterday – she helped me by figuring out what type of student I am.  Anyway…more on that later…

Emily requested a Leilani fix today – so shall she receive.

Lei has been developing slowly as a disc dog.  We figured when we got her as a puppy, it would be the same as getting Lilli as a puppy – she would grow up living frisbee and loving nothing else.  About 6 months ago, she started stressing when playing disc outside.  She loves to tug with the disc, but when it comes to rollers and throws, she’ll only stay focused for a minute – 2 minutes tops.  We’ve noticed she doesn’t require play/work like the other girls and is happy to be a couch potato all day.  The perfect family pet!

Considering all of this, I’ve decided to focus on her being our trick dog.  She LOVES shaping and is very happy to train for quite a while – never losing focus or drive.  We’ll give her a break from disc work and keep it to a couple simple catches and tugging and see if she grows into it.

Here’s a video of Leila’s shaping session earlier today.  Watching it back, it seems like all the stuff she’s working on is her favorite trick – and that’s a very good thing!

If anyone has any cool shaping trick ideas – please post them here!!  We love the feedback!

Leila taught me about the fragile nature and importance of puppy growth.  I could pick the perfect puppy, with the perfect structure and breeding and temperament – do all of the right training from the start (Susan Garrett’s Puppy Camp at 11 weeks old), provide the healthiest organic foods and all it takes is one topple off the bed at 4 months old to potentially wreck her performance career.  I mean, what puppy doesn’t slide of the bed onto a carpeted floor?

Leila’s got a date with an ortho specialist on Wednesday.  She’s a little wonky in her rear and walking stiffly.  The breeder – Ellen – thought that it sounded a bit like a ruptured cruciate…  “A What?”, I said.  Unfortunately it’s pretty common in dogs and the description of it is pretty much what happened and how she looks now…which is not reassuring.  We’ll get some new films and see what we’ve got.  I’m going to keep in mind that we’re just taking precautions – making sure that there aren’t any injuries that need immediate attention.  I’m sure she’ll be fine and she’ll be back to catching discs and jumping high in a few months.

In the mean time, check out how long her legs have gotten!!  She’s looking long, lean and mean and can’t wait to get back to our disc training routine.  Considering how much crate time she’s had, and how little physical training – she’s been a champ.

She is growing beautifully.  I think that her long legs will really help her vertical.  Who says that conformation dogs are too big and heavy to be great disc dogs!  She’s got a better build that Lilli – and Lilli is a superstar!  Keep the positive juices flowing…

Ami and Jordan brought Jake (their red tri super stud male), Chante (Jake’s beautiful blue “wife”) and Riot (a spunky and true-to-his-name male tri) for the play today and Sketch’s mom and dad brought her and her littermate Patch (who was a HUGE male with the funniest duck dive I’ve ever seen).

I’m amazed at how much hair we’ve pulled out of the pool so far!  We had 7 Aussies jumping, swimming, chasing, barking, smiling, wrestling and herding for a good 2 hours before anyone stopped to breathe, then start back up again.  We settled everyone down a bit, tied everyone around the perimeter and started some disc dog play.  Lilli put on a mini show of her latest vaults and Jake did some great flips and leaps for high discs!  I can’t believe he was able to get that high in the air!

Since today was “technically” about meeting Sketch…we did some initial disc play with her and she doesn’t show any drive for the disc yet, but has some ball drive.  She’s got a fantastic laid back temperament – not bossy or dominant at all and very sweet, playful and friendly with all of the dogs.  She even took on her first swimming adventure today and jumped right in the pool with the other pups.  By the end of the party, she was a swimming pro jumping in confidently and making her way to the stairs without being called.

Ami took some amazing shots of the party today and posted them on Shutterfly to share with the world – here’s the link. Check them out!

Today was so much fun that we’re planning the next Aussie Party for mid-August, right before we head to Ron Watson’s Disc Dog Camp in Michigan. We’ll keep everyone updated about Sketch.  She is such a beautiful girl.  Just debating whether we’re ready to train 2 pups at once for disc dog…not sure if we’d be biting off more than we could chew…

Here’s a great photo from today of Sketch.  What great structure she has!

The problem: Most foods make Lilli throw up.  Any raw meat (other than chicken) makes her throw up.  Most foods give her diarrhea.  Evo was the only food that didn’t make her throw up, HOWEVER the enormous amount of stinky gas that came from both dogs ALL DAY was too much to bear – especially on long car rides with the windows up…GASP!

So, I brought up the conversation on K9Athlete – a forum where Jason and I connect with other disc doggers and performance dog owners.  I’m a bit proud that it’s the current ranking thread for most comments.  That to me means:

1. People want to know more about their pet’s nutrition
2. People want to give advice and share their experiences to help the people that want to know more about their pet’s nutrition.

I know for sure that I’ve asked our vet 12 ways to Sunday about what we should feed and what would help and what to do.  Most responses were to take Flagyl and try a different food.  The ones we tried above were the suggested foods.  I don’t have any hard feelings at all towards our vet, however I have learned from the conversations in that thread, that asking a vet for nutritional info may not be the best bet.

Long story short – I went and got a food called The Honest Kitchen.  I was made aware that it’s mush – basically like oatmeal consistency – and dehydrated raw organic food.  Also, a couple of myths I had heard were busted.

• Busted Myth #1: Soft, wet or mushy dog fod is bad for dog’s teeth.  Nope.  Not bad for their teeth.  They get plenty of chewing action by chewing bones or a kong or their master’s fingers…
• Busted Myth #2: Dogs can get sick by salmonella, e-coli and other bacteria by eating raw chicken.  Dogs’ bodies don’t work like peoples’ bodies.  They don’t “get food poisoning” from chicken and raw meats like people do.  Go ahead – feed raw.

So the purpose of this post…the new food makes great, healthy poops, gives no gas and smells edible.  The girls don’t particularly like it though.  I think they look at it like a kid looks at a pile of mashed peas for dinner…mmmm….nah I’ll wait til I’m hungrier…

So today, I took it a step further and applied some other advice I got from Susan Garrett’s feeding plan for her dogs: chicken necks!  The store was out of chicken necks but they had chicken backs for .69 per pound!  So I bought a bunch up, came home, chopped it up, put it in their green, mushy, super-healthy super-food and WALA!  They ate it right up! AND it gave them something to crunch on. 

I’m grateful for healthy dogs with healthy tummies and clean smelling air.  Thanks to everyone who contributed to our new meal plan!

This is Leilani at 9 weeks old – about 2 hours after we picked her up from the airport.  Wow.  Where did this little fuzzy meatball go??!!  Now she’s a firecracker!  Enjoy.

And as often happens to Andrea, my amazing wife, she did all the work training Lilli and I got to reap all the rewards of having an amazing frisbee dog.   It was probably 6 months when i first started training with Lilli, after Andrea had already covered all the basics and weaned me into training. Andrea is fearless, I love that about her!  She dove into getting me a dog, training a puppy, taking on agility and freestyle, all new for her.

So Saturday we expect to get Leilani, and I feelmore excited and less scared.  This is my red merle Aussie puppy.  I have all the same fears, and this time fear doesn’t get to make my choices for me.  I choose to love, train and enjoy Leilani, for all that she is, all that she isn’t and all that my training is or isn’t. 

I am confident she will be wonderful agility and disc dog and even more I am confident she will get my love and attention.  She will likely demand a lot of it too. And I should acknowledge that Andrea will be supporting me and I her as we continue to train Lilli and Leilani.

Thanks for sharing Ron!

Thanks to Donna for the hot tip and for keeping an eye out for our new girl!

So the coolest part about sharing our new family member is…PHOTOS!

Now these are really cute…so prepare yourself to see the future agility and disc superstar!!!

Leilani at 2 weeks old

We are into the naming part now – her registered name that is.  We know that we want it to be related to Lilli’s registered name, Flying DragonLilli.  Also, Leilani’s mom has a Hawaiian name, CH Thornapple Island Kiss “Kauai” and her dad’s name is fire related – CH Thornapple Red Hot Outlaw “Scorch”.  Leilani is the flower necklace in Hawaiian, so that covers the mom and it’s a great call name – Lani!

Now we need to find a way for Fire, Hot or Red themed words, Leilani and Dragon to tie in somehow and sound awesome.  We need your help so if you have any thoughts or ideas…PLEASE pass them along in the comments below!

We are so excited!  Leilani flies in from CHILLY Michigan the week of March 16th!  We’ll keep everyone posted with more pics and updates!